Frail Returns

I got a couple messages late yesterday wondering why I hadn’t posted on Frail Deeds Dancing. I assigned blame firmly to the category of post party recovery operations which was largely true. The other, more compelling reason was the realization the Christmas season had once again fled the coop and I was going to have to wait for an entire year before launching into another period of intense frivolity. Of course I’m fairly adept at the whole frivolity thing without the excuse of a holiday to support it but I digress.

Artist Rendition of Keene Friend's House Late Saturday Night

Not wanting to let go of the holiday spirit my wife and I decided to stay at Keene Friend’s house yesterday to watch the Patriots game. We also had certain responsibilities to assist in the cleaning up after another successful day after Christmas party the night before. The party at Keene Friend’s house is a tradition dating back at least twelve years when the party was moved from my mother’s house to his. Both of my kids grew up with the event and always consider the party a required part of the holiday celebration.

Party Host Extraordinaire

Keene Friend doesn’t issue many invites, people just realize it’s the day after Christmas and they’ll be needed at his house. He has a small house and it was jammed with people again this year, including my son and the ABFA; Calif-Daughter joined via video conference. Buddy had a complete meltdown at one point which was very odd. It seemed associated with one particular party guest who showed up with her daughter. It may have been her perfume or the smell of her own dogs that set Buddy off but he was not to be calmed down. I eventually had to move his cage out to the car until the party wound down. Of course with this crowd the popular opinion was that dogs are more sensitive to the occult and that the Wonder Pooch sensed an evil spirit in the aforementioned lady. That might have been the demon alcohol talking though, just saying.

Possessed Party Guest on Right With Daughter

The Pittsburgh Friend made his annual call to join the festivities and immediately asked the question everyone else was asking – where was the Cantankerous Friend? Another annual ritual was the serial arguments he revels in with virtually every party guest. Keene Friend remembered talking to him at the November pub crawl about the party and we felt it was a safe bet he would attend since he’d made the last twelve years in a row. We received a late night message from the diva that he didn’t realize the party was happening and couldn’t rearrange his busy social calendar to attend. The dominant theory espoused is that he has a new, secret girlfriend that he doesn’t want to risk having meet us. The party was still a lot of fun but certainly lacked the edge the Cantankerous One always achieves. I had too much fun to even consider taking photos for which I apologize; the party was epic enough to justify photographic evidence of same.

Fuzzy And M.I.A.

After cleaning up even more telling evidence of our Saturday excess and rendering his home habitable again, Keene Friend joined us for Sunday breakfast with a very energetic Asian waiter and then a visit with the lady I’ve always considered a second mom. We’d stopped by on Saturday before the party but she was out socializing. She’s well into her nineties now but still spry and we spent a fun, but short time catching up with her.

The Patriots’ injuries finally caught up with them as they fell to a desperate Jets team in New Jersey. The fact that the Pats took the Jets to overtime despite missing so many key pieces was instructive in terms of the future. If the two teams meet again with Patriots having those pieces back, in Foxboro, the Jets are not to be feared. It was still frustrating to watch those posers celebrate.

My son had set up the Keene Friend’s new I-Pad during the party so he spent much of the game bemoaning his fate in the Family Fantasy Football Championship game where he was matched up against Wingman. Wingman is asserting his well-known dominance in the milieu this year. He picked up a defense yesterday and had it score an unprecedented amount of points against Keene Friend while his team which eked out a win against me last week faltered. It was that kind of day yesterday. The necessary valley after the holiday peak soaring.

I’m going to have to spend time today staring at photos of a certain young Californian to assuage the removal of Christmas from the environment for another year.